


Mama

by indigowaterbears



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M, Honeymoon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-08-11 23:49:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7912285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigowaterbears/pseuds/indigowaterbears
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Owen insisted on organizing the spur of the moment honeymoon, juggling both their schedules and very few days off and Amelia's neverending stubbornness. Amelia had delegated everything regarding the honeymoon, insisting she just wanted to be with him, after a promise to stop in LA some time in the near future she was strangely agreeable, or disinterested, he couldn't quite tell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mama

Owen insisted on organizing the spur of the moment honeymoon, juggling both their schedules and very few days off and Amelia's neverending stubbornness. Some mornings he'd wake up on the mattress on the floor, the one they kept saying was way too uncomfortable, but they were both too lazy to go shopping for a bed frame and maybe even bedside tables – he'd just look at her, most times marvelling she was still there lying next to him, that she hadn't run away yet. Owen had to pinch himself to remember she was now his wife. Not his on and off girlfriend or the friend that would skip town at the mention of something more than the eventual benefits. She was there, deep in dreamland, she was always there. She'd delegated everything regarding the honeymoon, insisting she just wanted to be with him and she'd seen enough that she had no more places on her bucket list – while Owen knew that a lie, after a promise to stop in LA some time in the near future she was strangely agreeable, or disinterested, he couldn't quite tell.

Maggie was gushing all over her, trying to convince her to go to Paris or Rome or some other city that had been apparently been labelled as _the_ love city or something. He knew Amelia couldn't care less and she'd already been to both places, yet she'd started complaining about his plans for Hawaii as soon as she'd found pictures on his phone of incredible huts and treehouses to stay in. Too windy, too many bugs, too many people, too cliché. A couple of days later, she'd trashed his adventurous plans to drive through the states in an old VW van and a bit later she'd also put an end to his crazy idea to hitchhike to Alaska – _we're grown ups, Owen, we have two driver's licenses between us and your truck is more than fine._ Yet, Alaska in the summer time means endless mosquitos, which meant definitely no Alaska. After these more original destinations he'd tried Maui, Cabo, Bali and Mexico and she'd destroyed his carefully thought plans for each and every single one of them.

"Why don't we stop this and you tell me what you want to do, uh?" Owen sighed as Amelia went on an endless rant about how boring it would be to drive through Napa for a long weekend. He wanted everything to be perfect, he wanted to give her everything and she was making it as easy as actual neurosurgery.

Amelia just shrugged, sitting up in the tangled sheets, his half buttoned shirt slipping down her shoulder messily. "I told you, it's fine, you can pick the place. I'm not picky."

Owen knew he should know better, but there was no way he could hold that snort in. "You have torn down every single one of my ideas and we're talking a lot of them. Just give me a hint, city or nature? Fancy or adventure? Beach or mountain?"

Staring at him with a dumbfound expression and big blue eyes, Amelia gaped at him. "Ugh, Owen, I don't know. You can choose, just tell me what to pack."

Shaking his head to himself, knowing there was no way out of this, Owen went back to his laptop, scrolling through more possible destinations. Amelia just sat back against the pillows, munching on cereals, entirely uncaring of all the crumbs falling around her and into her shirt, along with the few little pieces that would regularly miss her mouth with every handful she shoved inside.

After the first few no's he'd just caved and offered to go down to LA as their honeymoon, knowing she craved going back there, but Amelia had been firm, they'd go the first few days they had off sometime before autumn would come. This was hell. This was classic Amelia and he'd married her knowing what to expect, but he couldn't tell he'd been properly prepared before – maybe planning this before the wedding, with a little more time to think things over and make a decision together wouldn't have been such a bad idea.

She was happy, he could tell she was happy. Owen had never seen smiles so big on her face in the few years he'd known her. Yet, there was something bothering her, ever since the wedding something was wedged right in the core of her being and he couldn't figure it out. He'd subtly talked to her, asked Meredith and Maggie to talk to her – but that ended up in a conversation about his own 'equipment'. In other words, every single attempt at unlocking the relationship level where Amelia could open up freely with him had been fruitless and frankly he was now unable to restrain the blush on his cheeks around the two of them, so he'd done more damage than anything in the end. Closing all the tabs, knowing it was useless to keep looking until Amelia was fully into the idea of going on a honeymoon, he stared at his background for a few seconds, relishing in the calm and peace it brought him.

"I hope you're not thinking of taking me there." Amelia grumbled, mouthful of cereal spilling down her shirt. "There are bears on Mount Rainer, Owen, and besides that's like our backyard and we can just go there anytime."

Owen was about to buy her an only way ticket to somewhere she'd have a really, really hard time coming back from. Nobody had been any help at all. Callie was gone and April was at home with the baby and even Arizona had been completely useless. Owen was about to call in the big guns and ask for Richard's help, something he had left as a last resort, mostly because whenever he talked to him about Amelia he felt like he was talking to Amelia's father, and Owen was determined to solve this himself, not wanting to appear like the husband that couldn't handle his new wife. Although, admittedly, Amelia wasn't really _any_ wife.

Then he figured it out.

Amelia and he had managed to go out and buy the living room furniture, which for now consisted of a dining table, chairs, a couch and a coffee table. It was indeed minimal and Owen was hell bent on making this house their home and that meant filling it with endless crap that would somehow mean something to them, plus throw pillows, blankets, photographs and finally unboxing some of Amelia's own crap from her room at Meredith's. As soon as the living room was up and functional, Owen had invited his mother over for dinner, Amelia had immediately insisted to have Riggs over as well, adding that it would be an amazing opportunity to clear the air about a lot of things in a somewhat controlled environment. Way too happy about her idea, she'd even offered to let them have the night to themselves, but Owen had stopped before she could even try to get out of the possibly uncomfortable and awkward dinner by inviting Maggie and Meredith as well.

In the end, Riggs and the sisters declined, once aware of the other's presence and Amelia had filled him in on the latest gossip, which Owen had listened to silently, picking his jaw up from the floor, but grateful it wasn't his own man parts being discussed for once. Over dinner with his mother, Amelia was a sight to behold. She made an effort to cook with him, set the table adding wildflowers in the centre, made small talk in an uncharacteristically soft and filtered way. She'd engaged his mom and made a visible effort, dressing up in black pants and a mother-in-law acceptable sweater – despite she knew his mother couldn't care less. Amelia did know she didn't need his mother's blessing as well and Owen could see it in her antsy, fidgety eyes. As the two of them were washing dishes, Owen stretched and stood on the porch, enjoying the pinkish tones of sunset while he stared at them through the big glass windows, laughing and exchanging smiles. He was about to call her out on her strange behaviour right after his mom left, as they were standing right in front of the closed door, but suddenly he got it. The moment the door closed, she wordlessly turned into him burying her head in his chest, gripping the back of his shirt in her fists.

He'd informed her the next morning of their upcoming secret trip. He'd bought the tickets as soon as she'd fallen asleep, emotionally wiped out by the day's events and he'd made a few calls, finding a nice hotel and leaving the rest to be decided upon arrival, knowing he'd have to put up with Amelia once she'd figure it all out. As one could imagine Amelia was a nightmare during the days leading up to their departure. Surprises were never their thing, yet, he'd insisted she'd probably enjoy this one and to distract her, he'd reminded her of their surprise puppy date. It was an endless string of questions about what to pack, and checking the weather and not knowing how warm the sweaters had to be or how high were the heels she could wear. _Pack as if you were to spend the week here at home_ , he'd suggested on her choice of clothes, ending up with showing her what he would be taking along himself.

"Two pairs of jeans, two shirts, underwear and socks?" Amelia pursed her lips at his tiny suitcase. "Are we actually staying in for the weekend? Because if so, at least I can avoid this packing pretence."

Owen shook his head, pressing his chest into her back as she kept staring at his luggage sceptically. With his hands firmly planted on his hips he leaned down to whisper in her ear. "We're not staying in. Now get packing, our flight leaves SeaTac in four hours whether you're ready or not."

When he handed Amelia her plane ticket, he knew he wouldn't be able to wipe the childish pout off her face for at least the duration of the flight. All five something hours of it. He sat next to her in their comfy, roomy, first class seats, Amelia stubbornly turned to look out the window as Owen kept trying to coax her to talk to him, or even look at him for that matter. Illuminations struck as he overheard someone mention their connecting flight and his mind started spinning. He gently bumped Amelia's shoulder, distracting from her cloud watching.

"What?"

Owen smiled at her curt response reaching over the armrests to grab her left hand. "This is a really pretty ring, but then again one can only try to compare to the beauty of the woman wearing it." He mused, not looking at her. "Your husband must be crazy to let you travel all alone like this."

"You'll get diabetes if you keep going on like that." With a huff, Amelia pulled her hand from his, curling into herself. "I think I'll try to sleep for the rest of the flight."

There was no way, though, she'd be able to close her eyes and stop that million miles per hour brain of hers and Owen was well aware of that. "Come on, Amelia-"

"No! I'm trapped! And _you_ did it." Amelia bit back as Owen's eyes lowered softly. "This is supposed to be out honeymoon and it's going to suck so bad, you'll never ever hear the end of it, do you get that?"

Sighing, Owen leaned over the armrests snaking an arm around her in an attempt to pull her into him, which she obviously resisted. "We only have the rest of our lives for that."

While the need to hold her ground and keep nursing her pride were pulling her one way, the newly discovered power of her love for this man pulled her right in the opposite direction, right into his waiting arms.

He had tried to convince her this was just a connecting flight, seeing the look on her face when he'd handed her the ticket, he'd tried to at least pretend they were going somewhere else, but Amelia knew him too well to fall for it. She'd sulked the entire flight, all the way out of the airport and to the car rental, all the way keeping silent, not uttering a single word. Of all the freaking places she thought he'd end up taking her, here was not even on her list. She'd shot down all those amazing, dream like locations because it always felt like he was trying to pick only some place she'd like, never letting his own desire weigh in on the choice and she hated that, but still she didn't want to do it herself. In hindsight, maybe she should have, maybe then she wouldn't be in this catastrophe waiting to happen kind of situation.

The drive through the trafficked streets was just as silent as the rest of the day had been, occasionally Owen would look over at her and she'd look over at him, his hand finding hers and weaving their fingers together, not even trying to keep a smile off his face at the feel of his ring on her finger. He knew that this ending well was a long shot, but he also knew this was how he was going to unlock the relationship level to allow him a _real_ honeymoon – one he intended to have despite her not knowing this was something of a pre-honeymoon and not the actual, real thing. As they reached their destination, according to the GPS – which he knew was spot on because Amelia had once again pulled her hand away from his, turning her body in the other direction – Owen parked the car and killed the engine, sitting in silence with her.

At first it was cathartic. They were sitting in a car in front of her childhood home in silence and Owen's head was swimming with all the possible outcome of today, eyes never once straying from his wife. Then it started to become uncomfortable and haunting. Amelia was just sitting there, staring out the window into the house she'd lived in for so long, the same house she hadn't visited since she left for Harvard. He knew what he'd done. Also, he knew Amelia believed he had no idea, but more often than not they had a tendency to let each other's demons cloud their judgement and today, he was the one kicking some serious demon ass.

"Do you want to go in?" he asked gently, knowing better than to touch her right now.

Amelia shook her head, but turned to look at him. This man, this good, good man, had taken her home for their honeymoon to see the family who'd bailed on her on her wedding day. To see the family that turned on her when she needed them. Amelia had expected it from her sisters, but her mom had been a surprise. Her mom was a rockstar, she was the best mom in the world and she'd let her down in the worst possible way – for the first time since the wedding, since Meredith stepped up and filled those empty shoes, Amelia felt how much it still hurt. She'd heard from her mom a lot over the years, especially when she was with James, after she relapsed, her mom was proud of her and had expressly asked for grandchildren, _more_ grandchildren, about a thousand times in the short weekend they spent together.

That mom wasn't the mom that left her daughter alone on her wedding day. "No. Can we go home?"

The small, broken voice went straight to his heart and Owen wanted to wrap her up away from all that pain and hurt, protecting her from the world, wanting to take away all her pain. In order to do that, though, Amelia needed to go in and confront her family. It was the only way to get past it. He reached over, cupping the back of her neck and pulling her into a soft, calming kiss, keeping their foreheads pressed tightly against one another.

"Sorry." He whispered, while his other hand stroked her cheek. "But you need to go inside, Amelia. Go see your mom."

After a handful of seconds, Amelia pulled away, hands rubbing under her eyes. "Will you come in with me?"

The small, watery, high-pitched voice could get him to dive into Niagara Falls without batting an eye. "Of course I am. We're doing it together, okay?"

This time he got a slight nod and an even smaller smile, but it was enough.

However, that feeling – the one where all the pieces seem to start falling all in place was incredibly short lived. By the time they had climbed the three steps to the door, a hand grabbed his as he was about to ring the doorbell.

"Wait." Owen expectantly turned to look at her, not entirely surprised by her instinct to shy away from this sort of thing. "What if nobody's home? What if we are interrupting something? What if she doesn't want to see me-"

"Stop." Owen placed both of his hand on her shoulders firmly, hoping to have stopped her meltdown at the very beginning. "Your Mom is in, she's expecting a call from Meredith, so she's definitely in."

Amelia frowned. "You set this up?" Owen shrugged his shoulder at her accusatory tone. "You knew you'd manage to get me here already?"

As Owen shrugged again the pout appeared back on Amelia's face. Owen used her momentary distraction to ring the doorbell. It took about a minute, a minute during which he could hear Amelia's heart pounding his way out of her chest while he was standing about a foot away from her, before someone came to the door.

"Amy?"

Amelia turned sharply toward the voice, fully intending to be angry, resentful and entirely entitled to feel so. As her eyes made their way to her mother, though, she couldn't utter a single word. This wasn't her mother, it didn't look like her, it didn't sound like her. The single mother who had raised five doctors, three surgeons, an OB and a psychiatrist wasn't standing right in front of her, looking back into her eyes. This was a shadow of that woman, her ghost, her weak and small and whispering alter ego and Amelia could not find any way to reconcile her feelings at the moment. Thankfully, though, somewhere deep down this was still the woman who'd held her for months when she had nightmares at night and kicked her ass hard enough that she went from neighbourhood teen junkie to world class neurosurgeon – she stepped aside silently, letting the both in.

Her walk was unsteady and both doctors could hear her breathing was slightly laboured, and a quick look around the place gave them both a good idea of what was happening. Well, Owen at least, because from the look of Amelia's round, unfocused eyes and slightly gaping mouth, she was most likely in denial about it. Carolyn motioned them to sit down on the sofa in the living room as she took her seat in what must be _her_ chair – there was yarn around it everywhere, and magazines piled neatly on the coffee table in front of it, not to mention the great view it had of all the picture frames on a shelf above the nearby fireplace. It took three seconds for Owen to spot Amelia. Amelia with no teeth, Amelia with a cat, Amelia graduating from Harvard.

Noticing Amelia was still standing, he pulled on her hand, getting her to sit next to him on the small sofa, her eyes never once meeting his, while firmly planted on her mother. From her spot on the chair she reached over, attempting to take her daughter's hand, knowing her well enough to not be disappointed when she pulled it away, leaning away from her.

"Are you going to introduce me to your husband, Amy?" her mother tried in an uncharacteristically sweet voice. "This _is_ your husband, right?"

"Yes," Amelia replied defensively at the implication that they had been right and the wedding had been a true bust after all. "don't call me Amy." _Only Derek gets to call me Amy._

Her mother smiled, unfazed by her little girl's words. "Amelia."

For her part, she nodded briefly, acknowledging her mother's mellow tones for the day and trying to work out how her anger fit into her newly found curiosity and dread. "This is Owen. You could have met him at the wedding, if you-"

"It's a pleasure to see you again, Mrs. Shepherd." Owen cut Amelia off, despite taking maybe a second too long, not still completely used to the speed words would sometimes come out of her mouth at.

Her mother reached over Amelia to shake the man's hand. "Pleasure's all mine, Major."

Owen had never been angry about her family not coming, not even on her behalf, he'd been incredibly supportive and loving and he'd been enough of a family that she never noticed their absence at all. Now Amelia felt stupid. They knew each other already. "You're going to catch me up now, aren't you?"

Both chuckled to her growing irritation and Owen offered some short story about him meeting her mother while she visited Derek in Seattle a lifetime ago. It was cut off by her mom coughing. It was just a cough, but after ten seconds, the doctor in Owen jumped to his feet as Amelia froze in her seat. By the time she had gone back to breathing normally, Amelia was sitting still as a statue, tears swimming in her eyes at the scene.

"What is it?" she asked emotionlessly, in a matter of fact way that told her mother she knew, not that she had any doubts about her daughter's ability as a doctor.

Carolyn shifted in her chair, leaning forward toward the angle of the chair that touched the sofa Amelia was sitting on. "Breast cancer. Lizzie said they caught it early enough, but radiation is wearing me down more than I would ever care to admit."

And there it was. The superhero's kryptonite, her mom was invincible, but apparently not immortal. Amelia forgot about her anger and about her resentment and disappointment to let herself wallow in the notion that her mother was sick, cancer sick.

"Are you…" the small, high-pitched, watery voice was back and Amelia felt a large hand press on her lower back in support.

Carolyn smile, but shook her head. "I'm going to be fine, two more rounds of treatment and I should be fine. The doctors are sure it hasn't metastasized."

"What doctors? How can you trust them? How can you be sure? How can they be-"

"Amelia." Owen squeezed her shoulder.

This time Amelia didn't pull her hand away as her mother reached over. "I'm going to be fine, Amy. I'm sorry I couldn't be at your wedding."

Amelia, though, just shook her head, feeling anger rise once again in her at the mention of her wedding. "Why didn't you come? You could have told me, mom, you could have told me when you were diagnosed… why didn't you tell me?"

Swallowing a lump in his throat Owen just rubbed his hand on her back, knowing all Amelia needed right now was to feel him right there with her.

"I was going to, but then I was on the phone with Meredith after she was attacked and she mentioned you were _not well_. She never said anything more, but I knew." She smiled, cupping Amelia's cheek gently. "I know how hard it is for you and I didn't want to give you any reason not to get better again."

Amelia bit her lip nervously, her mother had struck a chord, apparently her relapse had coincided exactly with her mom finding out she had cancer. "Meredith knows?"

Shaking her head Carolyn cleared her throat. "It seemed you both needed to heal back then and everyone assured me I would be okay, so I decided to wait to tell you."

"But what if they were wrong? What if you…" her lower lip trembled and her voice broke as the words refused to come out.

Grabbing her other hand Carolyn shook her daughter out of it, in true Mama Shepherd style – _no sympathy, never_. "I'm here and I'm fine, Amelia. I'm really, deeply sorry I couldn't make it to your wedding, baby, I never wanted you to be alone, but I couldn't ruin your day with this."

Amelia felt a smile tug at her lips as the events of the day came back to her. Her meltdown with Meredith, running in the rain, having an existential crisis over convenience store slurpees. "I wasn't alone."

Her mother smiled, with just a look into her eyes she knew what happened that day – also, it helped that Meredith had called a couple days after to give her a piece of her mind about her absence after all those speeches on big families and such, and Carolyn had thanked her for being her daughter's family that day.

As another coughing fit ensued, Owen slapped his thighs, offering to make tea for them – mostly wanting to give the two of them a little time alone.

"I'm proud of you Amelia."

Amelia's eyes had been following Owen through the living room, in the hall and dining room, right into the kitchen, glued to him as if she was suddenly afraid of him leaving, feeling strangely uneasy at his absence. "Uh?"

Her mother stood, sitting in the spot Owen had just vacated, unable to stop herself from readjusting Amelia's drooping sweater on her shoulder and smoothing out the wrinkles in her pants as soon as she was within reach. "He's a good guy."

"He is." She agreed, swatting her mom's hands away, with no real desire to have her take them off, though. "I don't even know why he's sticking with me, to be honest."

Carolyn softly tucked a curly strand of hair behind her ear, stroking her cheek before rubbing her arm. "You don't give yourself enough credit."

"Mom, I'm the black sheep of the family, remember?"

With a not so playful shove, Carolyn offered her patented mom glare. "You are a neurosurgeon, Amy. You have a stable job, you are a delight to have around-"

"You should talk to Meredith about that-"

"Hush." Her mother held up a finger and Amelia complied immediately. "You are a great aunt – yes, don't make that face, Meredith and I talked for a while a few days ago, and you just got married to a more than decent man, whom you deserve for one. You deserve to be loved like that, Amy."

Amelia did nothing to hide the tears in her eyes, not much different from the tears she'd cried in the bathroom the day she'd married Owen after her mother had told her she wouldn't come out to be with her that day. "I love you, mommy."

Carolyn's open arms were soon filled with Amelia's sobbing form, she didn't waste a second wrapping her arms around her holding her as tight as she possibly could. She rocked her little girl like she had so many times before, feeling the sudden nostalgia at the realization that it had been such a long time since she'd done so, and not because Amelia had never needed her in all this time. It was a few minutes after when Owen made his way back there, carrying a tray with teapot and three mugs and a plate of chocolate chip cookies, handing one to Amelia immediately after he'd set everything down on the coffee table. She grabbed it out of his hand like she hadn't seen food in days and he couldn't help a chuckle that inadvertently matched her mother's.

As tea was poured and sugar and milk added, Owen felt eyes on his from his position on the chair and shyly looked up. "I believe you have something for me."

Amelia's eyes did nothing to hide her confusion, but Owen nodded, standing quickly to reach an inside pocket of his jacket. He pulled out a manila envelope and Amelia was now contorting with curiosity. Before she could ask, he handed it to her mother, who unceremoniously ripped it open revealing photos, drawing and little artefacts obviously belonging to the kids. Needless to say the conversation took on an entirely different tone as the three adults, Amelia and Carolyn in particular, lost themselves in the sea of things the Mary Poppins like envelope held.

"Oh, look at her." Carolyn held up a picture. "Ellis looks just like you did when you were little, minus the blond hair of course."

Amelia smiled, a big, bright, happy smile. "It's crazy, when we pick her up from daycare sometimes people think we're her parents."

Owen nodded. "Right, my presence merely justifies the blond hair."

"Oh well, just look at her," she nodded towards Amelia. "she looks absolutely nothing like me, but what can you do, after thirty hours of labour I sure wasn't going to give her up."

Amelia shook her head at her mother. "Well, if it's any consolation I look absolutely nothing like Nancy, Kate or Liz. Thank god."

"Amelia!" her mother scolded at the cheap shot to her sisters and Owen couldn't help but just sit back at take the whole thing in.

Straightening up her back, Amelia shrugged. "Sorry… not sorry."

Owen was shaking his head disapprovingly at her, as she was unable to keep that childish streak and unfiltered brain at bay for more than a little while. It was then that her mother took the moment to drop a bomb on them. "So, when are you going to have your own, without needing to steal Meredith's?"

Suddenly, both started stumbling on words, trying to answer and yet not give an actual answer to such a loaded question, one that Owen realized with a decent delay, Carolyn had no idea was _that_ much of a loaded question. Apparently, it was in the Shepherds' blood to lie by omission in the best interest of everyone else.

"Mom, we _just_ got married." Amelia insisted hoping to avoid getting more in depth in the conversation.

She should have known it wouldn't be so easy to deter her mother. "Oh, please, Amelia. I hope you know having a ring on your finger is necessary to procreate." As the couple exchanged glances, she continued showing off perfectly her own lack of filter. "Is there something wrong with either one of you? Because it certainly doesn't look-"

"Oh god, please stop." Muttered Amelia, burying her face into her hands. Talking about grandchildren was something she could handle, talking about _making_ said grandchildren was becoming extremely uncomfortable. "Nothing's wrong, as I said we _just_ got married, give us a bit. Besides, don't you have, like, twenty grandkids already?"

Waving her hand dismissively at her daughter, Carolyn shushed her. "Oh, they're all grown up. The youngest one I have here is twelve. So, what can I hope for, twenty-two? Twenty-three?" she asked without any hint of sarcasm. "Amy you better get a move on before I start counting the great grandkids."

Owen was watching the ping pong match from his own seat mutely, vaguely amused at Amelia's shift in the presence of her mother. "According to Amelia, you might make it to twenty-five, great grandkids excluded."

The smile on Carolyn's face stretched to its limits. "Oh, that's fantastic news. Are you pregnant already?"

Amelia sat back in her seat, throwing Owen a death glare. "No! No, absolutely not."

"Well, don't waste any time now, you better get started." her mother chided not so gently. "I didn't have five kids in a day."

Amelia snorted loudly at the admission and Owen couldn't help but notice that these two women differed only in looks, the fire they had inside was practically identical. "No, you had four kids and then forgot how to use birth control."

"Amelia Shepherd!" her mother scolded, still with a smile on her face. Her sister had started calling her an oops baby when she started elementary school, and Amelia had proudly gone around telling everyone she was an oops baby, until her mother was called in by her teacher and explained to her it wasn't a nice thing. But admittedly nothing else explained the huge gap between her and Derek and the rest of her siblings. "Or, did you change your name?"

Unable to keep in the giggles, ignoring the scolding look Owen was throwing her way, knowing those giggles all to well, Amelia tried to keep a straight face for just a second. "Yep, it's Shepherd-Hunter now. Pretty cool, uh?"

Her mother and Owen exchanged helpless looks, letting Amelia burst into another wave of giggles, hoping she'd stop on her own in the near future without the need for an intervention from them.

The rest of the visit went by nicely, the heaviness of Amelia's disappointment in her mother balanced nicely the fact that she had just found out she was sick and it somehow made it all okay, even though it was anything but. The only thing Owen realized, from his mostly silent position on the chair, was that Amelia's mother and his mother would get on like a house on fire and there wasn't a neve ending in his body that wasn't terrified at the thought. Soon enough, Carolyn grew tired, fighting it until she couldn't anymore and he made up some excuse to leave without calling Amelia's attention on it.

"When are you flying back?" she asked as she walked them to the door.

"Tomorrow night." He said catching the flash of disappointment in both women's eyes. "I wasn't sure how this was going to go, so I decided to play it safe."

Her mother nodded. "That's wise. Where are you going for your honeymoon? Planned anything yet?"

Amelia was quick to answer, "We're here, mom." But at the same time Owen spit out a casual. "Cuba."

Her head whipped to his so fast it might have detached from the rest of her body. "What?!"

Carolyn smiled, pulling Owen into an embrace and kissing his cheek, making him promise they'd drop by tomorrow before leaving and opening the door for him, before pulling Amelia in a bear hug, holding her tightly to her and whispering into her ear. "Don't chase this one off, Amy."

With teary eyes and a watery smile Amelia stood in front of her mother. "I won't, promise."

"And remember the grandkids! You better get started with that." Her mother insisted as Amelia stepped out on the porch, standing next to Owen, subconsciously taking his hand.

Amelia frowned, feeling giggles surge once more. "Mom, are you sending us back to our hotel to have sex and make you grandkids?"

Owen wanted to dig a hole in the ground and disappear instantly, instead, he just grabbed her shoulders and turned her around. "This is it. We'll see you tomorrow."

They walked to the car and Owen walked to her side to open her door, something she hated, but that she was conceding for this brief while. As soon as he walked around the car he was pulled in the tightest hug Amelia had ever delivered.

"I get it you like the idea of going to Cuba?" he chuckled into her hair, holding her back just as tight.

"Shut up." Amelia shook her head. "I love you so, so, so much, Owen."

He leaned down, getting a better hold on her, raising her slightly off the ground. "We're lucky then, because the feeling is definitely mutual."


End file.
